Trump announces two-week delay to planned China tariff increase

President Donald Trump on Sept. 11 announced that the U.S. will delay the next round of scheduled tariff increases on goods from China by two weeks.

Across the first $250 billion worth of goods subject to tariffs, the rate will be increased from 25% to 30% on Oct. 15, after the tariffs had previously been set to increase on Oct. 1, Trump announced at 7:17 p.m. EST via Twitter.

Trump said he was delaying the increase at the request of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, “due to the fact that the People’s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th Anniversary on October 1st,” and added that the move was “a gesture of good will.”

The delayed increase comes on the same day that China announced the first round of U.S. goods — 16 items in total — to be exempted from Chinese retaliatory tariffs, to be effective Sept. 17 through Sept. 16, 2020.